National News
Labour condemns new media smears
Sputnik
SENIOR LABOUR Party figures and the family of former party leader Michael Foot have expressed their fury over the re-emergence of claims that he was a paid KGB collaborator. But Foot’s successor, Neil Kinnock, said Michael Foot had been a “passionate and continual critic of the Soviet Union” and its “internal and external despotism”.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Holy hypocrite
by New Worker correspondent
HIS GRACE, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was warmly applauded both within the hall and beyond when at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) he demanded a halt to the roll out of universal credit that “has left too many people worse off, putting them at risk of hunger, debt, rent arrears and foodbanks”.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Impoverished Mandarins
by New Worker correspondent
SENIOR civil servants are very concerned about the Government’s response to the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) recommendations for the Senior Civil Service (SCS). first Division Association Assistant General Secretary Lucille Thirlby, whose union represents the high-caste mandarins, said: “The Government’s response will leave SCS members feeling overwhelmed and undervalued.” She pointed out that the SSRB recommended a significant overall 2.5 per cent pay increase for senior civil servants but the Government has only agreed to a miserable 1.25 per cent.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Steel troubles
UNIONS representing workers in the British steel industry have attacked plans by British Steel Limited to undertake a “streamlining process”, which is a polite term for 400 redundancies.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Health battles
TRADE UNIONS have won a battle to force the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Health Trust to abandon plans to move 600 non-clinical staff, including maintenance workers, porters, housekeepers and caterers, to a wholly owned, subsidiary private company.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Labour Pains
by our Scottish political correspondent
THINGS have not been going well with the Labour Party in Scotland. A recent local authority by-election saw Labour lose to the Tories in Gordon Brown’s former constituency; the by-election had been caused by the resignation of the incumbent. The Tory won despite some unsavoury eight-year-old remarks on Facebook about disabled people coming to light in the course of the campaign.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Health Woes
by our Scottish political correspondent
Scotland’s health services continue to deteriorate. Whilst 90 per cent express satisfaction with serious operations (this figure excludes the views of those who die), there is much to complain about the care received in hospital, waiting times and the post code lottery. Despite Scottish National Party (SNP) boasting that funding is at historical high levels, it provides the lowest standards in western Europe.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
A Typical Tory
by our Scottish political correspondent
Recently elected Tory councillor and part-time clan chief Sebastian Arbuthnot-Leslie has finally been suspended by his party, due to the fact that he has been neglecting to pay his council tax that he owes for his ancestral Lickleyhead Castle in his constituency. He was exposed for owing £2,535.59 to Aberdeenshire Council months ago. He hit the headlines for describing council chamber opponents of welfare cuts of crying crocodile tears late last year.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
International News
Korean leaders meet for peace in Pyongyang
People’s Daily (Beijing)
THE LEADERS of the two Koreas agreed on Wednesday to end military tensions and try to achieve complete de-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula. Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and south Korean President Moon Jae In made the pledge at a joint press conference in Pyongyang.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Trump will ‘undoubtedly be impeached’
by Jorge Ruiz Miyares
FORMER US President Richard Nixon’s top adviser in the Watergate scandal, Andrew Hall, has said that President Donald Trump will “undoubtedly be impeached”. Hall made the remarks in a recent interview with the {Independent}, where he said he is watching history repeat itself with Trump as more of his aides get nabbed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the alleged Russian election interference in the 2016 presidential election.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
China hits back at US tariffs
by Pavel Jacomino
CHINA has decided to take countermeasures hours after US President Donald Trump’s announcement of new tariffs on 200 billion dollars’ worth of Chinese imports, amidst an escalating trade war.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Putin loses out over pension scandal
by Lyuba Lulko
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev have played the game of bad cop/good cop in their efforts to explain the essence of the pension reform to the people of Russia. Putin’s behaviour in relation to the prime minister looks unethical, just as it looks wrong in relation to his electors. It appears that Putin may eventually lose control of the patriotic idea — the only idea that still helps him stay in office.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Features
Wales shares its music with the Crimean people
Sputnik
A number of negative messages from Ukrainian journalists, bloggers and the Ukrainian Embassy in London have been unleashed on a symphonic brass ensemble upon their return from a summer Russia tour, which included performances in Crimea.
Despite the doleful sentiment and potential “legal measures to be taken against the Symphonic Brass Wales”, as announced by the Ukrainian embassy in London, the ensemble’s musical director Craig Roberts told Sputnik that the musicians also received numerous messages of gratitude and a warm welcome from the audiences, adding that the Ensemble is looking forward to returning to Russia again soon.
Sputnik: Could you please tell us how the August trip to Russia came about?
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
Our History: The movements of 1848
People’s Democracy (India)
THE APPEARANCE of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, written by Marx and Engels, in February 1848, coincided with the outbreak of the revolution in Europe.
The revolution began in France on 22—24th February. The bankers’ king, Louis Philippe, was dethroned and a republic proclaimed. The first reports of the revolution reached Marx whilst he was in Brussels. On behalf of the Brussels Democratic Association, Marx warmly greeted France’s Republican Government.
[Read the complete story in the print edition]
